An enterprise having a multitude of personnel has a vast asset of information available, but yet is often faced with difficulties in matching a seeker needing assistance with an inquiry to an expert within the enterprise. Match and route systems have been developed which are capable of connecting a seeker requesting information to an expert. The seeker's inquires are criteria organized into categories of information and are helpful in matching a seeker's request for assistance with the skills of a pool of qualified experts. The result is a live collaboration session between the seeker and a selected expert.
The systems prior to the present invention utilize a technique that matches inquires to skill sets identifying experts by utilizing a fixed identifier, which is dedicated to the associated inquiry and skill set. The data records needed for such systems for even a moderate sized enterprise are labor intensive to create and populate. Extensive effort is expended in “hardwiring” the connections between the categories of organized criteria and the skills of the qualified expert. Any change in the criteria organization requires an equally extensive and labor intensive effort.
Building and loading the data records is expensive and prohibitive. Missing from the art are techniques that add flexibility to the match and route systems. There exist a need in the art for a technique which facilitates reconfiguring a match and route system with an inexpensive and efficient approach.
Further missing from the art is a system in which a seeker's inquiry is routed to an expert using semantic to non-semantic routing techniques. Also, missing from the art is a system in which a pool of experts can be easily and readily be made accessible to multiple organizations and enterprises. The present invention can satisfy one or more of these and other needs.